Before I traveled to Italy, I was told: Understand how the food works. In Southern Italy, you’ll eat red sauce and olive oil. In the north? Butter. Parmesan cheese. Maybe some truffles. Despite the fact that the country is no bigger than half of Texas, there is no one way to cook Italian. Everything’s completely regional. And if you want to eat through Italy right, you have to know what to get where.

This can be tricky, considering Italy has 20 regions. Rome’s Lazio, Milan’s Lombardia, and Toscana (or Tuscany, as we know it) are some of the most familiar. So, let’s start small – with one of the country’s lesser-known, but no less picturesque, regions: Abruzzo.

Tucked east of touristy Lazio, quieter Abruzzo seems to have it all. Rugged mountains. Forested national parks. The Adriatic Sea. And with its diverse landscape comes a huge range of cuisine.